Artist's Statement on larger collection, from which this image is taken:
I chose to examine the label pessimist. Even though I enjoy having fun and consider myself to be a mostly positive person, people have often told me that I can bring out the worst of a situation, that I seem to focus on only the bad of a situation. I personally think of myself as a realist, but agree that I can be obsessed with negativity at times. I chose to use the English Oxford Dictionary’s philosophical definition of pessimist.
“A person who believes that this world is as bad as it could be or that evil will ultimately prevail over good.”
-The Oxford Living English Dictionary
This definition seemed to resonate with me. It embodies some of the anxiety that I experience in my pessimistic episodes, however, it does not explain what that person does with pessimistic beliefs. Many of my beliefs and tendencies stem from nihilism. Over the years I have embraced my own personal philosophy on the matter. I understand that many of my beliefs are that of a nihilist, yet I embrace the empowerment of nothingness, and the opportunity that existential freedom gives me. I now consider myself to be an existential nihilist.
My collages are meant to appear dark and depressing on the surface, but hold some optimistic deeper meaning. It is meant to reflect how society can miss-interpret conscious concerns of a realist as the ramblings of a pessimist. Even though I have selected the word pessimist, my piece is tailored to inspire, despite the dark appearances. I have also arranged them in a way that depicts my growth throughout the years.
All of the images I have used are from the Flickr commons page, which I found to be particularly useful. The bulk of editing was done in Photoshop. Photoshop was particularly useful on the piece with the lettering across the man’s face. The text editor has an arch function that was made for my project. Below is a screen shot of my workspace during that project.
Author's Statement on "Stained":
Several of my beliefs about where the suffering comes from, and how to be happy align with Buddhist teachings. I do not claim to be a Buddhist, but I admire the religion and way of life. Unfortunately, the current way of living my life still involves emotions, temptations, anger and sadness at times. The red splashes obscure the image of Buddha. Red is often representative of passion, or fervent emotion, representative of the emotions previously discussed. These emotions and behavior cloud the actions that I would need to take to actually follow Buddhist teachings. The background of the image may actually be more important. The background contains the text of “Desiderata”, a poem by Max Ehrmann. The poem gives advice on how to live life peacefully, and how to attain the things that you desire. I have found much comfort in this poem through turbulent times in my life, and I would say that it has permeated my life ever since I have first read it. For this reason I have made it the background. It is faded to represent that it is something that I keep in the back of my mind at all times. It should be noted that the red mentioned earlier also obscures some of the text. This is to show that my emotion still challenges some of my beliefs, but not as much as it obscures the Buddha. I chose to use the poem and the Buddha together, as they have similar meanings to me.
